Google TV won't let you skip the ads

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It's hardly surprising, but Google TV product manager Rishi Chandra confirmed in an interview with an Australian newspaper that ad skipping will not be possible on the Google TV platform.

“It's much harder with an on demand system for users to skip the ads because they are being streamed in real time”, said Chandra, who was speaking at an I/O briefing in Sydney.

Google relies on advertising revenue to make its money, so the idea that its TV service would allow you to fast forward the ads never really had a chance of coming to fruition. It will be a bit of a shock to viewers who have become accustomed to skipping adverts using services like Sky+ and other PVRs.

However, Chandra believes that the ad industry will work even harder to get the attention of viewers, with an evolution in TV advertising:

“From an advertiser's perspective one of challenges we have seen from existing television infrastructure is that you can't personalise ads in any way. One of the things the web has is that it can be much more targeted.

"You can display fewer ads that are more targeted to users because you can monetise the content better. We can be much more smart about what type of ads we play but also ensure the ads are being played - and we can also do much more tracking. It's going to be a win for everyone, especially on the advertising side”, he said.

We're not sure if having to watch TV ads constitutes a win exactly, but it will definitely be interesting to see what sorts of Ads the modern day Don Drapers come up with.